Category Archives: Culture

The rash of sting videos released by the Center for Medical Progress not only exposed Planned Parenthood, but also reignited debate in Christian circles over the nature and moral legitimacy of deception.

The Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1:15-20) and Rahab (Joshua 2:1-5) have long been enough to convince me that there are cases where deception is not only excusable, but praiseworthy (dare I say, righteous?). Others have not been so persuaded.

In an effort to defend the legitimate use of deception, my friend Joshua Torrey – the mover and shaker behind Torrey Gazette – wrote a series of posts on the subject. These posts have recently been revised, expanded, and compiled into a single volume. It’s available for free right now in MOBI, EPUB, and PDF formats. For anyone with questions about the biblical case for ‘holy deception’, Torrey’s book is a sane and studied place to start.

Also, for the love of all that is sensible, subscribe to TG. It’s just one of those things you won’t regret.

I read Psalm 82 this morning and was impressed by how fitting a meditation it is in light of recent events, from the SCOTUS ruling, to #PPSellsBabyParts, to this appalling NY Times piece.

God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.
How long will you judge unjustly,
And show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Defend the poor and fatherless;
Do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy;
Free them from the hand of the wicked.

They do not know, nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

I said, “You are gods,
And all of you are children of the Most High.
But you shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.”

Arise, O God, judge the earth;
For You shall inherit all nations.

Matthew Henry points out that “to do unjustly is bad, but to judge unjustly is much worse, because it is doing wrong under the colour of right; against such acts of injustice there is least fence for the injured and by them encouragement is given to the injurious. It was as great an evil as any Solomon saw under the sun when he observed the place of judgment, that iniquity was there.” (Eccl. 3:16; Isa. 5:7) Should not the leaders of the land tremble under such a scathing indictment?

And yet we draw encouragement from this, above all: Justice is coming. The One dispensing it cannot err and will not be stopped. Henry again: “This we are to believe and to comfort ourselves with, that the earth is not given so much into the hands of the wicked, the wicked rulers, as we are tempted to think it is. (Job 9:24) But God has reserved the power to himself and overrules them… There are two words with which we may comfort ourselves and one another in reference to the mismanagement of power among men: one is Rev. 9:16, Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; the other is Rev. 22:20, Surely, I come quickly.”

This morning I woke up to another Planned Parenthood video, in which a former employee describes taking a baby whose heart is still beating and cutting its face open with scissors to harvest the brain.

To paraphrase Douglas Wilson, the wicked flee when no one pursues, but they make better time when we go after them. David Daleiden, executive director of the Center for Medical Progress, is doing exactly that. He’s behind a series of videos aimed at the murder mill and self-styled champion of women’s health known as Planned Parenthood.

Four videos have been released so far, and nine more are scheduled to drop over the coming weeks. Nine. For a grand total of thirteen. According to Daleiden, that’s 300 hours of undercover footage, “gathered during a 30 month long in depth investigative journalism study of how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of the babies they abort.”

If you’re struggling to keep up, Justin Taylor has compiled a helpful list of updates here. See also this post by Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist. Then contact your representatives. Call, email, or if you’re feeling old-fashioned, write a letter. Use your voice, and use it loudly and often. If you’re on Twitter, recognize it for the powerful platform it can be, and help keep hashtags like #PPSellsBabyParts, #AnotherBoy, and #DefundPP alive and kicking.